Workshops & Speaking Engagements
Workshops & Trainings
We offer virtual and in-person workshops grounded in equity, cultural responsiveness, and real-world experience. Each session is uniquely tailored —no two are exactly alike.
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Our core curriculum is shaped by the communities we serve, and we’re always ready to co-create new content based on your specific goals, challenges, and audiences. Below, you’ll find brief descriptions of our most requested sessions, though we welcome the opportunity to build something just for you.
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Speaking Engagements
With decades of experience in nonprofit leadership, fundraising, and advocacy, we are honored to speak at conferences, community events, and sector convenings that align with our values. We advance conversations around equity, leadership, and dismantling systemic injustice—helping mission-driven organizations think boldly and act courageously.
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About the Sessions
Sessions range from 1-2 hours to half- or full-day sessions. For deeper discussion and meaningful engagement, we recommend group sizes of 10–15. For larger groups, we bring in additional facilitators to ensure all voices are heard and supported.
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Ready to collaborate? Contact us to start the conversation.
Board Education 101
(90 minutes to 2 hours)
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Ideal for: New, prospective, and existing board members
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Goal: Provide a foundational understanding of board responsibilities, legal duties, and effective nonprofit governance.
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Key focus areas:
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Defining responsibilities and accountability within board and staff structures.
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Defining the three hats of a board member: governance, implementation, and volunteer.
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The duties of care, loyalty, and obedience as legal obligations for board member
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Understanding financial statements (e.g., balance sheet, income statement, functional expense, cash flows)
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Fundraising principles
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Board expectations
Inclusive Board Recruitment
(60–90 minutes)
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Ideal for: Board members, executive leadership, and governance committees ready to move from intention to impact in board development.
Goal: Participants will gain actionable tools and insights to build a board that reflects the communities they serve and advances organizational equity.
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About: Grounded in Talem’s Building an Inclusive Board guidebook, this session provides practical, values-aligned approaches to board recruitment and engagement through a diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) lens.
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Key focus areas:
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Aligning board recruitment with your organization’s mission and strategic goals
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Embedding an inclusive mindset into board culture and leadership development
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Codifying DEIA principles into board policies, bylaws, and procedures
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Setting meaningful benchmarks for embedding DEIA in board and committee work
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Ensuring process goals lead to measurable, mission-aligned outcomes
Hiring and Retaining Diverse Board Leadership
(60-90 minutes)
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Ideal for: Executive leadership, board chairs, and governance or nominating committees.
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Goal: Develop sustainable practices for inclusive board recruitment and retention.
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Key focus areas:
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Quantifying turnover and its impact
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Effective onboarding and retention targets
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Inclusive mentorship and engagement
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Creating and maintaining a culture of inclusion
Building a Culture of Trust Through Confidentiality & Transparency
(2 hours)
Ideal for: Senior leadership, board members, HR professionals.
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Goal: Build organizational trust by navigating the balance between transparency and confidentiality with a DEIAJ lens.
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Key focus areas:
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Defining confidentiality, transparency, mandated reporting, and public trust
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Value of reinforcing privacy as part of a DEIA lens
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Complying with confidentiality requirements while maintaining transparency
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Preventing harm through policy creation and compliance
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Consequences of breaching the duty of confidentiality, alongside other related policies
Developing Consensus Around a Vision for the Future
(2-4 hours)​
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Ideal for: Board, executive leadership, and key staff members following a strategic planning process.
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Goal: Establish collective alignment on strategic priorities, oversight, and resource allocation.
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Key focus areas:
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Mapping key dimensions of direction, oversight, and resource development
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Aligning strategic goals with resources
Understanding What Inclusivity Means for Your Organization
(60-90 minutes or a 4 hour working session)
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Ideal for: Staff, board, and DEIAJ working groups.
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Goal: Define inclusivity in your unique organizational context and identify actionable next steps.
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Key focus areas:
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Key areas of diversity for your organization (e.g. racial, ethnic, cultural, ability, neurodiversity, language, citizenship status, age, family/ upbringing, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, education, socioeconomic status, and privilege)
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Methods to engage, onboard, and maintain positive working relationships with diverse identity groups.
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Mapping key processes to sustain organizational diversity
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Strategies for cultural change and engagement to maintain a positive workplace
Hiring and Retaining Diverse Staff Leadership
(60-90 minutes)​
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Ideal for: Hiring managers, HR teams, and executive leadership.
Goal: Implement equitable recruitment and retention practices across leadership roles.
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Key focus areas:
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Quantify the cost of turnover
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Effective onboarding practices
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Tools to widen and diversify applicant pools
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Support retention through mentorship, affinity groups, and onboarding
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Transparency around selection and promotion criteria
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Update qualification standards so they are consistently applied among candidates.
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Tools to maintain a culture of inclusion and engagement
Supporting the Needs of Diverse Team Members
(60-90 minutes)
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Ideal for: Supervisors, HR staff, and leadership.
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Goal: Foster an inclusive and healthy work environment that supports all team members.
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Key focus areas:
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Cultivating a welcoming and healthy organizational culture that supports employees, volunteers, and board members from diverse backgrounds.
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Ways to promote an inclusive culture
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How to foster open communication
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Tools to avoid subjective employment decisions based on hidden biases
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Steps to enforce anti-harassment and other employee policies
Nonprofit Management Skills
(half to full-day session)
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Ideal for: Mid- to senior-level nonprofit leaders.
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Goal: Strengthen core management, fundraising, and evaluation skills.
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Key focus areas:
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Understanding the organization’s financial position
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Building effective program metrics and evaluation tools
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Developing and executing culturally responsive fundraising strategies
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Incorporating community organizing and advocacy to support your mission
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Implementing community-centered strategic marketing and communications
Approaches to Leadership
(60-90 minutes)
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Ideal for: Leadership teams, executive directors, and emerging leaders.
Goal: Explore inclusive and culturally relevant leadership models.
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Key focus areas:
The session moves beyond traditional, top-down, vertical management approaches to discuss culturally diverse management approaches and how to effectively move toward a nontraditional model:
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How to move beyond top-down, vertical management to a nontraditional model
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Barriers to implementation (e.g. resistance to change, misalignment with current organizational culture)
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Explore shared and horizontal leadership
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Explore intercultural and comparative leadership approaches that manage across cultural divides and setting up an inclusive environment to support teams
How to be an Inclusive Leader
(60-90 minutes)
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Ideal for: Leaders and team managers.
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Goal: Move participants along the inclusive leader continuum (unaware, aware, active, advocate).
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Key focus areas:
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Understanding and interrupting bias, exclusion, and privilege
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Centering underrepresented voices
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Moving from an individual and interpersonal lens to a systems lens
The Power of Community
(60-90 minutes)
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Ideal for: Program teams, organizers, and fundraisers.
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Goal: Center community voice and power in your organization’s strategy and change-making.
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Key focus areas:
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​Theories of change
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Using the community as a key lever for change
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Organizing with and through communities
Language Matters: Incorporating Equity into External Communications
(90 minutes to 2 hours)
Ideal for: Communications and development staff.
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Goal: Create inclusive, ethical communications that align with community values.
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Key focus areas:
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Storytelling models and what they tell us
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Moving toward a community storytelling framework
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Recognizing and resolving bias and othering in materials
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Approaching and creating culturally responsive fundraising appeals for diverse communities
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Tools to incorporate inclusive language in messaging
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Writing and image recommendations
Ethical Fundraising
(60-90 minutes)
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Ideal for: Development professionals, board members, and leadership.
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Goal: Reframe your fundraising strategy to align with equity and justice values.
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Key focus areas:
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Educating and examining the individual privileges that exist within staff/board/volunteers and the privilege the organization hold in comparison to the community served
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Community-informed giving models
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Culturally-competent fundraising techniques informed by giving traditions rather than a one-size-fits-all approach
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Ethical gift acceptance policies
Fundraising within Diverse American Populations
(90 minutes to 2 hours)
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Ideal for: Fundraising, donor engagement teams, fundraising committees.
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Goal: Understand culturally grounded giving practices across communities.
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Key focus areas:
The color of a person’s skin, age, education, or how long they have lived in this country is not a significant predictor of giving amount.
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Historical concepts of giving and their modern relevance
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Philanthropy across languages with unique traditions and connotations
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Fundraising in non-White communities: Latin/Hispanic, African American, Asian, and American Muslim community fundraising
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Inclusive fundraising strategies for effective community outreach
Institutional Giving 101
(60-90 minutes)
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Ideal for: Grant writers, development teams, and leadership.
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Goal: Build a culturally responsive and inclusive institutional fundraising strategy.
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Key focus areas:
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Overview of Family Foundations, Giving Circles, Identity-Based Funds, Community and Independent Foundations
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U.S. domestic foundation giving landscape and how equity impacts funding
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Benefits and drawbacks to grant writing
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Building a comprehensive grants calendar
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Writing inclusive, ethical, and culturally responsive proposals
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Understanding how unconscious/implicit bias can impact your grants
Fundraising in Times of Crisis
(60-90 minutes)
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Ideal for: Development professionals, executive teams, board members.
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Goal: Learn to adapt your fundraising strategy in response to social and economic challenges.
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Key focus areas:
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Historical patterns of giving during a crisis
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How to maintain and sustain current giving and donors
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Responsive, ethical fundraising pivots
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Reframing messaging
Fostering a Culture of Gender Inclusivity
(90 minutes to 2 hours)
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Ideal for: Staff, HR teams, and DEIA committees.
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Goal: Address gender-based exclusion and build inclusive organizational systems.
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Key focus areas:
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Basic patterns of gender bias
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How gender bias/exclusion differs by race and culture
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Examples of subtle acts of exclusion, implicit bias, and discrimination
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Implications of gender exclusion in the workplace
Fostering Gender Inclusivity: Moving from Awareness to Action
(90 minutes to 2 hours)
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Ideal for: Participants who completed the Fostering a Culture of Gender Inclusivity session.
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Goal: Move from learning to implementation with tools for workplace equity.
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Key Focus Areas:
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Identifying actions for community, systems, and individual change
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Organizational tools for gender equity
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Allyship and inclusive leadership scenarios
Interrupting Exclusion and Bias in Community Spaces
(60-90 minutes)
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Ideal for: All-staff sessions, affinity groups, or board trainings.
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Goal: Build racial equity skills through accountability, awareness, and healing.
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Key focus areas:
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Understanding and identifying fragility and privilege
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Impact of exclusion and bias on organizations
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Interrupting exclusion and bias
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Identity awareness and transformative change scenarios
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Culturally Responsive DEIAJ Organizational Practices
(90 minutes to 2 hours)
Ideal for: Leadership teams, board members, and DEIA committees.
Goal: Integrate DEIA deeply within your organizational mission and programming.
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Key focus areas:
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Identifying gaps in service and representation
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Designing culturally competent, community centered programs
Prioritizing Self-Care in Nonprofit Spaces
(60-90 minutes)
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Ideal for: All staff, board, and leadership teams.
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Goal: Promote wellness and sustainability in nonprofit work.
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Key focus areas:
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Balancing organizational needs and personal wellness
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Boundary setting
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Self-advocacy for pay raises, benefits, time off, and other needs
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Effective and professional communication as the voice of your organization
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Prioritizing spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional health and growth​
Practical Wisdom for Leadership
(60-90 minutes)
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Ideal for: Leaders navigating systemic barriers.
Goal: Equip participants with strategies to lead authentically despite exclusion and discrimination.
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Key focus areas:
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Community-centered strategies to lead with authenticity
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Featured Speaking Engagements
The Talem team has been honored to serve as speakers, facilitators, moderators, and panelists at global and national conferences, forums, and leadership events. Our engagements reflect our commitment to equity, justice, and capacity building across communities.
Fee Structure
Each fee structure is agreed upon in writing before the project is undertaken as a flat, fixed project fee or a monthly retainer.
All contracts are written for a negotiated length of time. They can be canceled with a written 30-day notice. All travel and out-of-pocket expenses are approved and billed monthly.
We do not work on a percentage, commission, or contingency basis. ​Learn why here.